Camp Conversations Checklist

7 tips to writing better communications for camper families

Writing: 2 Sources of Confusion

Writing is a part of every camp director’s job. Between emails, memos, instructions,
forms, blogs, reports, texts, tweets, websites and marketing materials, camp directors
and their staff are on the sending end of a lot of messages. Often these are dashed
off in a hurry, perhaps on a phone or tablet. Sometimes a flurry of back and forth
messages is required for clarity. Frequently, neither party realizes a misunderstanding
has occurred until much later, when something doesn’t get done correctly.

Sound familiar? Communication has always been a tricky business. No message
sender means to be unclear, and no message receiver tries to be deliberately obtuse.
Yet with poor communication costing businesses more than $40 billion annually,
clearly, we don’t communicate as well as we think we do! In the information age, the
need for effective communication is more pressing than ever.

Both you and your campers’ parents are busy and distracted. That’s the source of
most miscommunication, and also why writing needs to be clear. As a camp director
with a message, the responsibility is on you to slow down and make sure your words
will hit their target. Like it or not, to some people, poorly written messaging raises a
flag about the overall professionalism of your camp—especially on your website.

"The single biggest
problem in communication
is the illusion that it has
taken place."George Bernard Shaw

Navigating the 3 Legs of the Writing Journey

We live in a world of increasing complexity. Everyone, from students to experts,
struggles to master their daily tasks. It has been shown that neither more training nor
more advanced technologies prevent significant errors. In his book The Checklist
Manifesto, acclaimed writer and surgeon Atul Gawande describes a simple and
humble remedy: the checklist.

When a pilot ticks off the items on a take-off checklist, it adds a few minutes to take-off,
but the global installation of the checklist to the flight industry has significantly reduced
the number of simple, but deadly, errors that can occur. Gawande was instrumental in
establishing the checklist in operating rooms around the world, with impressive error
reduction.

It’s possible this simple checklist can help improve your daily task of writing. These tips
require no training time or new skills, and can be implemented instantly. Like a pilot’s
checklist, it will take a little extra time to implement, but that time will “pay for itself”
by eliminating errors and confusion, and increasing comprehension, compliance, and
customer satisfaction.

These tips generally apply to all forms of writing.

BEFORE

Once you start writing, it’s like plunging into a jungle. You can be easily diverted from
your intended path. Here’s how to stay on course:

Mark Your Route
Before you start writing, organize your thoughts. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Just jot down a quick outline of your main objectives (i.e. the 3 things you want to
ask in your email, the 4 forms parents need to fill out, the details of a camp
experience in the order you want to tell it).

Check Your Compass
Along the way, you’ll think of other ideas that seem good to include. Jot them
down quickly on a separate page but stick to your original outline. Those extra
ideas can easily distract your reader from the intent of your message but it’s not
a bad idea to capture them for future use.

DURING

Even when you lay out a logical path for your camp parents to follow when reading
your communication, their own filters, interest level, and distractions can detour
them from your intended message. It’s important to avoid putting up roadblocks to
comprehension, and to plant signposts along the way to keep readers tracking with
your thoughts. Here’s how you do that:

Write Responsibly

Write conversationally, but not too casually (i.e. Don’t use text \ shorthand—“u” for “you”—anywhere but in your personal texts, and maybe not even then!)

Avoid all caps and exclamation points (one exclamation point per document might be too many)

Use Spellcheck

Cover 3 of the 5 C’s of Writing in this phase:

Clear: Avoid jargon and acronyms and follow logical thought processes

Concise: Get to the point in as few words as possible

Compelling: Enhance your message through stories, illustrations, humor,
or data. A story is simply a fact, wrapped in an emotion, that compels
someone to take action, that transforms them in some way.

Use Road Signs
Today, parents are more likely to skim than to actually read every word. They’ll
catch more of your message if you format the main goals you identified in your
outline into:

Bold headings

Short phrases in bulleted or numbered lists (or checklists)

New paragraph for each topic or question

"If you don’t have time to
do it right, when will you
have time to do it over?"John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Fame

AFTER

Even experienced writers need another set of eyes reviewing their work. You are no
exception. The following tips are not choices, but a series of steps that—together—
will significantly reduce typos, unnecessary words, unclear instruction, rambling, and
confusing thought sequences.

Editing and proofreading are the most important steps, and the ones most often
neglected.

Systems Check

Check for the final 2Cs:

Consistent: Did you make sure fonts, headings, punctuation and other formats (i.e. phone numbers) match?

Correct: Did you run Spellcheck?

Read your piece out loud:
This will help you find more errors than just
proofreading. Revisit anywhere you stumble.

Pit Stop
The most important step is to
Step Away From the Piece. Do something else, then come back for review. The longer you wait, the more you’ll see.
Recommended minimums:

Facebook posts and Tweets - minutes

Emails - minutes to hours

Blogs and instructions - hours to overnight

Confrontational communications - overnight to days

Marketing copy - days or weeks

Roadside Assistance
For anything going public, let someone else read it, preferably out loud. Ask what
their main takeaway for the piece is. Does it match\ the goals you had in your
outline? You know where you used humor or put emphasis, but their reading of it
may reveal a different view.

Reaching
Your
Final
Destination

Now that you’re ready to send out your communication, make sure the delivery is as
polished as the content. If you’ll be emailing, use software tools that allow you to put
your copy in sleek templates that reflect your brand. Also think of adding a “register”
button to your email to take people directly to your online registration forms. And to
make sure your message is as targeted as possible, consider splitting your contact list
into various segments and personalizing your email message with a different headline,
salutation or closing paragraph for each group. A good camp management software
system will enable you to do this with ease and to pre-schedule email sends to make
sure they’re delivered at the right time for your audience.

PRINT THIS

If writing isn’t your best gift, you’re not alone! Putting your thoughts and ideas into
clear communication is difficult for many people. Turn these 7 practices into habits to
ensure that your camp communication reflects the quality of your camp! Print out the
mini checklist below to put near your computer.

Next Steps

Consider your takeaways from this paper. Which steps do you want to start
implementing right now? Also, think about the technology you’re currently using to
support your parent and staff communications. Are your tools integrated with the rest of your camp management and online registration system? Are they easy to use? Do you want to find out what else is possible?